The Final Stretch: Second-Year Students Pass Oral Comprehensive Exams

Triumph, pronounced [awr-uh-l] [kom-pri-hen-siv] [ig-zam-z], has recently been achieved by each and every one of AppState’s second-year IOHRM students. Put differently, the IOHRM Program’s oral comprehensive exam (OCE) met its new makers, with the majority of the Program’s second-year students putting the exam behind them with a mark of distinction. But what exactly does the IOHRM Program’s OCE entail, and what makes it such an amazing accomplishment?

Imagine filling your brain with as much information as you can about industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology, human resource management (HRM), and all that lies in between. Now imagine doing so over a two-year period in which you must expertly discern the interconnectedness of everything that you learn. If you can do this, and then in a single hour eloquently evidence what you have learned by conveying it to a panel of three professionals who study, teach, and essentially breathe I-O psychology and HRM for a living, then you can claim that you have successfully passed the OCEs.

Considering the magnitude of this feat, it goes without saying that the second-year IOHRM students can be deemed experts in the fields of I-O psychology and HRM. The next step is to put this expertise into practice, and the second-years are either well on their way to attaining positions in which they will do so, or have attained such positions already. In other words, IOHRM faculty, alumni, and first-years can rest assured that the IOHRM Program’s second-years will soon be among their predecessors, performing beyond their employers’ expectations and doing great things for the world of business.

Please take the time to enjoy some of the comments the second-years expressed about how it feels to have passed the OCEs:

“I would say the several weeks before comprehensive exams are undeniably stressful, but really the process is incredibly worth it for the sense of preparedness it instills. I think it's an excellent reflection of our training in the program and that passing truly indicates workplace readiness. So happy to be done!”

- Evea Kaldas

“A huge weight off my shoulders! Everyone in the program has put in a lot of work and effort over the past two years, and going through the OCEs provided assurance of how much we've learned during our courses, and the proficiency we have as future field professionals. In the end, the process was fun!”

- Dea Kamberaj

“It was such a great experience because up until then, I don't think I fully realized how much I've actually learned from this program and how prepared for the future I am because of it.”

- Jessica New

Class of 2016
Published: Apr 1, 2016 12:39pm

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